Steel City Snapper photography
35mm, medium format and large format film photography (with the odd bit of digital every now and then…)
Ozzy the bull resides in the Grand Central hall at Birmingham’s New Street railway station. Weighing 2.5 tonnes and standing 10 metres tall, the animatronic bovine beast was first unveiled as part of the Commonwealth Games in 2022 before finding his new home after a major redesign and rebuild.
He’s named after Ozzy Osborne who hails from the city.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 20 January 2024
Another of my pictures, for reasons I can’t ascertain, that found its way into Flickr Explore.
Why do my better pictures never end up in there? I don’t dislike this one, but it’s very much a quick snap.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 20 January 2024
In a moment of synchronicity, a day or so after I posted this picture to Flickr, I saw the exact same location on an article on the TV news.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 20 January 2024
Walking through Birmingham, we passed this wall of murals featuring characters from the BBC historical crime drama, Peaky Blinders.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 20 January 2024
I’m having a run of days this week where I’m short on time and having to upload somewhat short posts to the blog. Today is another such day, unfortunately. Apologies for the lack of words!
So here are two photos I took in Birmingham in January, the first of the cathedral, the second of the art gallery.
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 20 January 2024
Olympus XA3 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 20 January 2024
I liked the juxtaposition between the foreground statue and the background building in this scene. The figure looks defiant, as though holding back the looming structure in some way. The low angle makes him look larger than he might otherwise appear.
Brick by brick, stone by stone, build him till he’s fully grown.
Fetch more water, fetch more sand, biggest person in the land.
Empire State Human – The Human League
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 7 September 2022
It’s in a catherdral, so maybe the former? Most likely just a stairway to the upper gallaries and the clock-tower though.
This picture instantly brings to mind the poem, Antigonish:
Yesterday, upon the stair,
I met a man who wasn’t there!
He wasn’t there again today,
Oh how I wish he’d go away!”
When I came home last night at three,
The man was waiting there for me
But when I looked around the hall,
I couldn’t see him there at all!
Go away, go away, don’t you come back any more!
Go away, go away, and please don’t slam the door…
Last night I saw upon the stair,
A little man who wasn’t there,
He wasn’t there again today
Oh, how I wish he’d go away…
© William Hughes Mearns
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 7 September 2022
On my last trip to Birmingham, the train got me to the station with plenty of time to spare before I had to be at my meeting, so I wandered around and took some pictures with my Canon Z135 compact. It’s not the smallest compact I own, but it’s proven that it can produce reliable point-and-shoot results and the images are plenty sharp, although with perhaps a bit of softness right at the edges.
The cathedral (St. Philips) was open, so I popped inside to see if there were some photos to be had and I made the three you can see below. While the cathedral interior wasn’t too dark, the Z135 doesn’t have a particularly fast lens – f/3.5 at its widest – so I was pleased I was still able to make these three pictures handheld with no noticeable signs of camera shake.
Canon Sure Shot Z135 & Ilford HP5+. Ilfotec DD-X 1+4 9mins @ 20°
Taken on 7 September 2022
Today’s photograph was very much spur-of-the moment with the only real intent being to frame the lady in the pink top in front of the dark doorway. I managed to do this without chopping off the top of the streetlight, which was nice. The thing I like best about the picture though – an I don’t know why – it the lone Costa Coffee cup stood on the floor. It’s a tiny detail in the photograph and yet it makes it much better somehow. Or maybe it’s just me?
The Olympus Trip 35 did another stirling job of catching the composition sharply and correctly exposed.
Olympus Trip 35 & Kodak Colorplus. Lab developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Taken on 18 July 2022.
Steel City Snapper photography 